How to See an Art Museum: Boston Museum of Fine Arts Part Two

 

 

Holgar, Man with an Axe

 

 Edwin Holgar as Printmaker (through December 16, 2024)

Dutch and Flemish Masterworks (ongoing)

Power of the People: Art and Democracy (ongoing)

 

My first rule for enjoying an art museum is always to see the things that you came to see first. That’s why we hit the Dali and O’Keeffe shows when we walked through the doors on our October 27 visit. See your # 1 desire when you’re fresh.

 

This leads to my second rule of museum-going. Many people feel like they have to see “everything” because they paid to get in. Bad move! In a big museum like the MFA you simply can’t, but you can make your brain explode by trying. It’s the equivalent of trying to force yourself to read after you’ve nodded off on the same page three times. Plan ahead so you know what else you might wish to see–if you have time. Take breaks: browse the gift shop(s), grab a cup of coffee, or have a quick meal.* Resume your journey, but allow yourself to shift gears if you stumble upon something that fascinates you.

 

Mary McMaster

Museums like the MFA nearly always have smaller special exhibits worth seeing, plus they like to show off  new acquisitions somewhere prominent before they are shuttled into a gallery. The one at MFA is often in the corridor near the information desk. That’s where I saw When the Storm Ends I Will Finish My Work, a poignant work from Mary McMaster, a Canadian/Cree artist. Call it a silent agitator. McMaster grasps a feather quill and is slumped over a tall stack of papers from which vegetation pokes through. Are they moldering broken treaties and the reason for her world-weary expression?

 

Holgar, Labrador Kitchen

My favorite special small special exhibit comes from another Canadian, print maker Edwin Holgate (1892-1977). He only made 60 prints and half of them are on display at the MFA. Most are from the late 1920s into the 1930s. He had great affinity for the northern climes of Quebec and Labrador, though he spent most of his career as a painter and teacher (at Montreal MFA). The prints you see inspired an invitation to join the Group of 7, a revered group in Canada. He never formally did so but, like Emily Carr, was so simpatico that he sometimes gets lumped with them. (If you’re trying to remember when you heard about the 7, Steve Martin is a great collector of linchpin Lawren Harris.) Thirty small prints, but I loved them.

Horseshoe Lake PQ

The Lumberjack 

 

The Village

 

Here's what to do when you’re starting to fade: Pop into a few permanent galleries and make mental notes to revisit them next time. I did this with two galleries, beginning with the revamped Dutch and Flemish Masterworks galleries. The MFA scored big-time in securing a gift nearly every Western museum longed to have: the Rose-Marie and Ejik van Otterloo Collection. It's mostly from the 17th century Dutch Golden Age. If you’re wondering, there is no Vermeer but I’m sure you can make do with luminaries such as Rembrandt, Franz Hals, Rubens, and Van Dyck. You’ll also find one whose name will ring a bell if you read The Goldfinch, Donna Taart’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel: Carel Fabritus. It’s not that painting, but it’s nice to see another. Fabritus (1622-54) was killed when a gunpowder magazine exploded in Delft and just a dozen of his paintings survived.  [Apologies for some of the oils. They simply have too much bounce light.]

Van Dyck

 

Rubens, Portrait of Sultan Ahmed III

 

 

Bruegel the Elder, Village with Canal
                                            

Rembrandt

Fabritus , Mercury & Aglauros

 

I must go back and spend more time in the newly opened Power of the People: Art and Democracy. Many people are so cavalier about democracy that they take it for granted that it will survive anything. In truth, it’s an old idea in theory but a recent and contested one in practice. The MFA scoured its own collections to highlight its promise (from 5^th c. BCE Rome on), its practice, and its need for preservation. Fittingly one of the last images if of storming the Capitol on January 6, 2020. Right now the exhibit is heavy on world war materials and photos and posters from the 1960s/70s. I suspect it will evolve and broaden.

 

John Trumbull, Death of Gen Warren

 

 

Can We?

Look Familiar?

Democracy was important to him

WWI

Good Idea

1/6/20 Is this how democracy dies?

Rob Weir

 

* The MFA has a quick-stop coffee shop outside its bookstore and a cafeteria in the basement. There’s upscale dining in its internal courtyard. It takes Mastercard, Visa, and organ donations.